Is there a type of medical specialty which focuses on viruses?

Question

I am fascinated by viruses and, since I want to be a doctor, am hoping I can study them and work with them. I know I might want to consider an MD/PhD program to study them in the lab, but is there a medical specialty that focuses on viruses specifically?

Answer 1

Unless you work specifically in a virology lab, the answer is no.

Virology can be looked at as one of the areas in infectious diseases, which is a MD speciality, but there is no real MD in virology. You can get your MD and a PhD and then specialize in virology if you want, or, you could get into bioinformatics, biostatistics, public health or epidemiology with a specialization in viruses.

Answer 2

One can become a virologist without an MD:

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/199...

In terms of MD types, viruses fall under the "jurisdiction" of Infectious Disease, which is a sub-specialty of Internal Medicine:

http://www.acponline.org/patients_famili...

Most Infectious Disease doctors look after all kinds of infections, including those caused by viruses, but also those caused by bacteria, fungi, protozoa, etc.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Since viruses affect all organ systems you can be virtually any kind of doctor and specialize in viral research. However you seem like you might be interested in Pathology, a medical specialty that focuses on laboratory analysis of samples from patients. Keep in mind that as is the case with any sort of doctor you don't choose what who work with, your patients choose you, while it is certainly possible to become an expert in something such as virology, your primary energies should be focused on treating patients. If research is truly what you are passionate about, don't rule out the possibility of becoming a PhD that works in a clinical setting or a school of medicine.